Monday, June 01, 2009

Stick 'Em Up: The Springtime Bandit

One of the aspects of lace knitting that most attracts me is the chart. I love me a good chart and everything about it. I love the fact that a chart means instant progress tracking and that you can cross off rows as you go. I love that once you visually master the pattern, you know right away if you've made a mistake. And most of all I love that feeling of triumph that is the 'edging' or final chart. Yes--I'm in the home stretch and can taste victory...However for this pattern, the 'edging' chart is basically 1/3 of the pattern. Wha??? I was thrown off a bit and even deflated, but then I decided to get over it. I am in love with the results. Kate Gagnon is such a talented designer, I want some sort of 'auto-subscribe' feature to her work.The Specs:Pattern: Springtime Bandit by Kate GagnonYarn: Brooks Farm Solo Silk, color unknown.Needles: size 8Time: about a week with major breaks for carousing with friends, stressful hockey games, dealing with a Creeping Charlie problem in our garden and having my mind blown by two, new albums (I still call them albums).I am a huge fan of the Brooks Farm Solo Silk. Sadly I lost the ball band and do not know the name of the colorway. I'm going to call in 'Fruit Punch' because it's graduation garden party season. I bought it at MDS&W and recommend that you keep a look out for it.

I continue to work round robin on a variety of projects but am likely to add one more to the party: The Textured Shawl. I have spent far too many hours perusing this pattern on Ravelry and acknowledge that I am probably powerless when faced with the possibility of not starting it right away. Finishing Springtime Bandit means that I have an opening in my 'knitting that doesn't require serious attention, is portable, can de done while watching a movie yet isn't making me want to fly into a blind rage because of lack of progress (Featherweight, that category is all yours)' category. So, yeah, watch this space for the pattern that is taking Ravelry and Flickr by storm, the Textured Shawl.

I know what you mean about knitting from charts, and I'm almost ashamed to admit that there was a time that I was anti-chart. (That phase didn't last very long; trying to knit lace from written directions cured me of my aversion really quickly.)